As technology advances, so does the role mobile devices play in enterprise businesses. Now, there are more devices that are being used to connect to sensitive information of businesses. Mobile device management can be implemented to reduce risk by protecting business data, securing corporate users and their devices early in the lifecycle of a mobile platform, enforcing security policies for compliance, and preventing data leakage. Thus, you might want to keep reading to find out how mobile device management can help your business:

The Increasing Mobile Threats

Modern mobile threats have become harder to detect and harder to prevent. While mobile phones used to be used primarily for voice calls, nowadays, smartphones are multi-purpose devices with the ability to access email, photos, videos, music, documents, and social networking. As a result, mobile devices are often used for carrying out critical business processes, such as transactions, account updates, and accessing sensitive or confidential data.

The mobility of tablets and smartphones has made mobile devices a popular choice for workers to use to access their work email. However, this has also meant that they have become an attractive target for hackers, who can use these weaknesses to gain access to sensitive information.

The increasing mobile device threats that users should be aware of include:

• Social engineering—This type of attack relies on tricking a user into revealing their passwords or other private information.
• Malware—Mobile malware is malicious software that is downloaded to a mobile device without the user's knowledge.
• Public networks—Accessing insecure networks outside of your business can expose devices to outside threats and vulnerabilities. Mobile device management can include implementing Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) that prevent access from insecure networks. It can also include other precautions, such as IP filtering and firewalls.

There are other mobile threats that get more advanced as technology advances, such as spoofing, which is when an attacker makes their device appear to be an authorized user.

What is Mobile Device Management (MDM)?

Mobile device management (MDM) is an approach to mobile device security that centrally manages mobile devices. Its purpose is to ensure security, privacy, and manageability, and compliance with corporate policies and external regulations.

A major advantage of MDM is that it allows an organization to tightly control access to business-critical data and apps on employee-owned mobile devices, thus enhancing the security of corporate networks and data.

Securing Devices with MDM Solutions

Various technologies and MDM solutions can be used to secure mobile devices, whether a laptop, tablet, or mobile phone. Mobile device management solutions that might be implemented to help reduce the threats to your business include:

• Virtual Private Network
• Content delivery
• Authentication
• Access management

The basic components of your mobile device management solutions can be expanded according to the needs of your business. For example, you might add geolocation restrictions to IP addresses outside of the area where a device would typically connect to your network.

Understand the benefits of mobile device management - to protect your business data. Contact a mobile device management service to get help reducing threats to your business.

For more information on mobile device management, contact a professional near you.